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Private school forced to shut with nine days notice
A PRIVATE Sheffield girls' school is being forced to shut its doors from next Friday – after the plug was pulled on its finances by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Staff at Brantwood Independent School for Girls in Nether Edge were given only nine days notice of the closure – and parents and pupils were only told the shock news last night.
The closure will leave 128 pupils aged from three to 16 struggling to find new schools after the half term break, with Brantwood now contacting other city independents to see if they have room to take the girls in.
Headteacher Lynn Marriott said the actions of RBS were "cruel" and she and her 30 staff were now facing redundancy.
"It's like something out of a Dickensian novel – we are all heartbroken," she said. "They are effectively throwing us out on the street."
She said it was particularly worrying for the girls who are due to take their GCSEs in the coming months.
"The school was founded in 1902. We are in our 40th year on this site and this is the last thing we expected," she said.
"We now have five days to get our girls into new schools. We are especially concerned our Year 11s who have exams this summer will have nowhere to go, but we are working very hard with other independent schools to find them places."
English teacher Ian McNeilly, who has worked at the school for five years, said staff were "flabbergasted" by the announcement.
"It is absolutely disgusting. Brantwood is very special in that it takes in girls of many abilities and backgrounds and the least the bank could have done was to treat us with a bit of dignity," he said.
Ashdell, Westbourne and Sheffield High School have all offered to take in pupils free for the rest of the current term.
But parent Louise Cooper, of Long Line, Dore, said her 12-year-old daughter Ellie had only been at the school for six months but now faced another move.
"We are really, really shocked. We are facing a struggle to get something sorted out for her," she said.
"We are expecting places to be hard to find. In fact we are panicking. We had paid fees in advance for this term and for a school trip in May - and 3,000 a term is a lot of money."
Independent Schools Association chief executive officer Neil Roskilly said: "To force the school to close at such short notice is morally indefensible, when it is perfectly possible to give it more time."
Brantwood has been struggling due to the recession and had loans with RBS which were secured against the valuation of the school and its grounds - believed to have recently been independently estimated at around 1 million.
But RBS is now said to have produced a valuation of its own which is 400,000 less than the school's figure, and has therefore decided to withdraw its support.
RBS is 84 per cent owned by the taxpayer.
Chairman of the governors John Boyington said all possible options for keeping the school open until at least the end of the academic year had been explored, but RBS had refused to even share the basis of their valuation.
"We have been shocked by their aggressive and unhelpful approach. All we need is a little more time on behalf of the girls at the school," he added.
Fees at the school range from 4,700 a year to 8,200 a year, but it has many pupils on subsidised places. It is non-selective and has a relatively high number of children with special needs.
A spokeswoman for RBS said the decision to close the school had been made by the governors, not the bank.
She said: "Over the past three years the bank has been hugely supportive of Brantwood School. RBS has actually increased financial support despite their business deteriorating over the same period. In November 2009 the governors acknowledged the business was no longer viable in the long term, and have now made the decision to close the school."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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